Interestingly, the word “Banks open today” or “Banks near me” have been searched more than 20 Million times. So with customers searching for Fintech Startups online, it is essential for the Fintech Startups also to be there. Now just being there doesn’t help much, unless a Fintech Startups can be seen by its customers among the other 2 Million results. Reports say, the results listed on the 1st page on Google get 32.5% traffic which is almost double compared to the 2nd page listings. The right SEO for financial services and banks can help them be where their customers are searching for them.
SEO is more than just simple rules. It needs to be a constant trial, and permutations and combinations to evaluate what works for a Fintech Startups to be up on search engine ranking. Having said this, there are still few checks which if followed, Google algorithms will ensure you get a better seat than other Fintech Startups on the search engine result.
Here are Top 10 SEO Strategies for Fintech Startups to Improve Their Presence Online
- Quality over quantity
- Ensure what you are sharing is what the visitor is looking for
- Be ready with the answers to customer queries
- Build trust through links
- Be present where your customer is…
- Mind mapping; explain through images and graphics
- Be visible through content creation
- Build an app
- Spend time on On-Page SEO
- Local SEO
Quality over quantity
Sounds obvious? It may though many banks miss on maintaining the quality of information which is the key for SEO. Just entering keywords cannot do the magic – the Google algorithm needs to get a sense out of it as well. You should also check for highly searched words which are low on competition. Go for them and be unique. Keep in mind not to dump a lot of information and clutter the space. The same applies for accountants and accounting firms as well.
Ensure what you are sharing is what the visitor is looking for
It is essential to provide crisp and to the point information and most importantly provide what people want to know rather what you want to tell them. For example, if a person is searching for ‘How to open a savings account?’ and lands on your site page, stick to providing just that information. If you clutter the place and try selling other services and confuse the visitor you will lose a customer as well as a good ranking.
Be ready with the answers to customer queries
Either have an online chat option to answer your customer queries or have a strong FAQ page. You need to avoid a scenario where a customer query goes unanswered and he lands on your competitor’s site in search of the answer. Have your documentation team work on creating questions in all the possible ways that a customer can think of asking it. These direct maps to customer queries help in increasing SEO for financial services providers.
Build trust through links
The information that you publish on your website has links to other renowned sites (outbound links), it makes Google believe that your site is reliable. The same applies when other websites or URLs have links to your website (inbound links). Now let’s not get into the math of how and why, just keep in mind that these links tells Google that there are URLs that trust your particular website for information and that your site refers to renowned sources of information (Forbes, Government sites and similar). Reliability is what we are to focus on here.
Be present where your customer is…
Go digital and be where your customers are – social media. Ensure you have atleast one post on social channels every day to engage your viewers. You can post greetings on festivals, quotes, banking tips, link to a related news, blog links and the options are enormous if you want to optimize your social presence. This engagement with users on social channels adds to a better score for SEO for accounting firms and financial service providers.
Mind mapping; explain through images and graphics
Reports say, 65% of us prefer looking at an image to learn rather than reading text. No doubt we look at an infographic first than a black and white text. It is hence recommended for banks to share information as infographics rather than lengthy text; specially data that you know will be boring for a non-banker to read and understand. You will automatically attract more visitors, as people will understand complex banking processes quicker and as it will be appealing to the reader.
Be visible through content creation
It is important to engage your visitors and make yourself more visible if you want to be seen online. Write blogs and publish on your site which are informative and can draw your visitor’s attention. Create a subscription database so that each blog that you publish goes to these recipients, thus increasing your site traffic.
Build an app
With the count of smartphone users already crossing 2 Billion, don’t be left behind without an app. Customers want to make transactions on the go. A mobile compatible website is good to start with but an app is a better option. Your competition would have already done it and it is essential for you to see what you can do different – a light weight app can be a plus point, make it interactive, have an appealing UI etc. Most important yet – have an app. Create offers for downloading the app by paying a reward or by offering shopping discounts.
Spend time on On-Page SEO
Have the main keywords on the title tag – the clickable link that shows up on Google search. The keywords that are available here are the first ones to be searched by Google. Other than this your site internal URLs should have keywords as well as should show the levels from the homepage for the Google algorithms to know the hierarchy of each page.
Local SEO
Before getting fame at the global level it is important to serve the local customers. Customers who are near to your location have a far higher chance to visit you rather than someone from a different city of more than a radius of 15 miles. There are very simple things you need to do to be present locally –
- Ensure your phone number and address is updated and is consistent at all places.
- Add all your branches on maps for ease of search.
- Make basic information available – services, facilities and contact information.
- Have reviews done by your existing customers.
A detailed analysis of leveraging each trick to the maximum so that they directly impact Search Engine Optimization, Local SEO, and other digital marketing services & campaigns.